Residential Real Estate; TriBeCa Is Priciest Neighborhood

By DENNIS HEVESI

Published: May 17, 2002

A ZIP-code by ZIP-code analysis of the New York real estate market shows that TriBeCa, with its apartments converted from expansive lofts, was the highest priced residential neighborhood in Manhattan last year. Apartments there were on average about 50 percent more expensive than those in the neighborhood that might have seemed like the obvious choice, the Upper East Side.

While apartments in TriBeCa were the most expensive, the highest average price per square foot remained on the Upper East Side, in the 10021 ZIP code, where it was $856.

The survey, conducted by Jonathan Miller, president of the Miller Samuel appraisal company, which prepares the Insignia Douglas Elliman Manhattan Market Report, looked at the co-op and condominium market in 35 of Manhattan's 43 ZIP codes -- those for which there was sufficient data for last year. The survey examined a total of 7,787 closed transactions, based primarily on public records and reports from managing agents. For the entire borough, the study found, the average sales price was $785,753.

''The perception of Manhattan is that the 10021 ZIP code on the Upper East Side, which includes Park and Fifth Avenues, would have the highest sales price average,'' Mr. Miller said. ''However, perhaps surprisingly, it was the 10013 ZIP code, which is primarily TriBeCa, that had the highest average price -- $1,638,811 -- and that was actually 53 percent higher than the $1,070,897 average price on the Upper East Side.''

The conversion of large lofts into apartments over the last five years has created homes that average roughly twice the square footage of apartments on the Upper East Side, Mr. Miller said.

The average size for apartments that sold in TriBeCa in 2001 was 2,480 square feet, the analysis said. At the same time, the average size of an apartment that sold on the Upper East Side was 1,251 square feet, ''reflecting the greater diversity in apartment type,'' Mr. Miller said, ''from studio walkups to 15-room Park Avenue prewar luxury buildings.''

The Chelsea ZIP code, 10001, which was also heavily influenced by loft conversions, registered the third highest average price -- $1,024,850. And the lowest average sales price was recorded in the 10034 ZIP-code area, which is Inwood, at the northern tip of Manhattan. The average price there last year was $140,475.

''It should be pointed out, however,'' Mr. Miller said, ''that prices in northern Manhattan have jumped by 325 percent over the the last seven years'' -- from $43,292 in 1996 to last year's $140,475. ''Northern Manhattan became an attractive alternative because of the limited inventory further south,'' he said.

The average price per square foot for the entire borough was $693. After the Upper East Side, the second, third and fourth highest averages per square foot were all on the Upper West Side. The second highest was in the 10023 ZIP code, at $797; third was 10069, at $780, and the fourth highest was 10024, at $754. The lowest price per square foot was recorded in the 10034 area of Inwood, at $161. In TriBeCa's 10013 area code, the average price per square foot was $661.

The study examined 4,958 co-op sales and 2,829 condominium sales in Manhattan last year. The average price for co-ops was $659,905, and for condominiums it was $1,012,772. The price difference has been caused by a trend in recent years to build large condominiums as well as the comparative ease of transferring ownership without the need for board approval of the buyer, Mr. Miller said.

The ZIP-code area with the highest average price for co-ops was 10028, also on the Upper East Side, at $1,040,703. For condominiums, the area with the highest average price was 10022, Midtown on the east side, at $1,794,934.

The median, or midpoint, sales price for the entire borough was $455,000 last year, the survey found, with the highest median for a single ZIP-code area also recorded in TriBeCa -- $1,385,000. The second highest median price was $930,000, in the 10001 ZIP code, which is Chelsea.

''Chelsea came in second in this category because the median, as an analytical tool, removes the highest and lowest prices,'' Mr. Miller said, ''and the Upper East Side has more of an extreme range in prices and apartment sizes.'' The ZIP-code area with the lowest median price last year was 10040, the Fort George section of Manhattan just south of Inwood, where the median price was $132,000.

The neighborhood with the highest sales volume last year was also the 10021 area of the Upper East Side, where 1,287 transactions were recorded, representing 16.5 percent of the 7,787 sales in the entire borough. Second place in sales volume was the 10023 area on the Upper West Side, which had 850 transactions. ZIP-code areas vary in geographical size and housing density, and the 10021 area on the Upper East Side is far larger than the 10023 area on the West Side.

While data for this year is still being collected, Mr. Miller said that ''the preliminary indications are that the pattern is similar to last year.''